Class 10 dropout from Rajasthan arrested for of selling fake currency

The accused, identified as Mula Ram, a resident of Barmer, Rajasthan had previously also cheated people by opening a ‘Gigolo Club’ and receiving money from gullible people.

NEW DELHI: Delhi Police arrested a 22-year-old man who allegedly deceived people on the pretext of selling good quality fake Indian currency notes, an official said on Thursday. The accused, identified as Mula Ram, a resident of Barmer, Rajasthan, was a class 10th dropout and had previously also cheated people by opening a ‘Gigolo Club’ and receiving money from gullible people.

In the present case, the complaint was lodged by a senior official of the Ministry of Finance stating that an Instagram link has come to their notice where it has been claimed for the sale of Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN).

Accordingly, the Special Cell of Delhi Police registered a case under section 489B (using as genuine, forged or counterfeit currency notes or bank notes) and 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code on February 11 and the case was then handed over to the Intelligence Fusion & Strategic Operations (IFSO) unit which began probing the matter.

During the course of the investigation, a police officer from IFSO contacted the alleged Instagram account as a decoy customer and also transferred Rs 3,000 through UPI account to his Google pay number. The accused assured that he would send Rs 6000 (fake notes) in exchange of Rs 3000. “He also told us that he would send a parcel containing fake currency notes of `6,000 through Amazon that would reach within 24 hours but he avoided the police decoy customer and did not dispatch any parcel,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (IFSO) Prashant Gautam said.

The police then immediately swung into action and started tracing the alleged account’s location but the accused kept changing his location across various states of India. His movements were tracked to Telangana, Haryana, Delhi and Rajasthan. “With the help of technical investigation, we tracked him down at Maitriwara, Raniwara,  Jalore, Rajasthan from where he was apprehended,” the official said.

Modus Operandi

• Accused created an Instagram ID where he uploaded certain videos displaying high-quality Fake Indian Currency Notes being delivered to its customers through Amazon parcels
• Allured people through his videos that he would provide double the amount.
• He used to ask for the Google Pay number of the victim and then sent a ‘HI’ message. He then used to ask his victim to make payment over the number on which the ‘HI’ message was sent.
• This peculiar method was adopted by the accused to hide his mobile number from getting tracked.
• The accused, identified as Mula Ram, a resident of Barmer, Rajasthan, was a class 10th dropout and had previously also cheated people by opening a ‘Gigolo Club’ and receiving money from gullible people